magic in the cappadocia sky with sultan balloons!
our travel from nepal to turkey included a taxi ride, a flight to abu dhabi, a terrible night’s sleep on the floor in the very over-airconditioned abu dhabi airport, a plane to instanbul, a bus in intense traffic across the bosphorus to a different airport in istanbul, a missed flight, a repurchased plane fare, a flight to kayseri, a shuttle to a rental car place around midnight, and a dark drive in the wee hours on turkish freeways and then tiny winding roads in the village of goerme. phew! quite the effort to get to the cappadocia district in eastern turkey. we arrived at our hotel about 2:30am …
… and woke up about 4:30am for a hot air balloon ride! and pretty darn quickly it was allll worth it!
i saw pictures of hot air balloons over the funky cappadocia landscape a few years ago and immediately added that experience to my bucket list. ian and i booked a balloon flight with sultan balloons before we left the states and we had such an awesome time – an incredible chapter one in our next country, even when we were so sleep-deprived. it was absolutely electrifying and so spectacularly, uniquely beautiful – it was magic in the cappadocia sky. the folks at sultan balloons made the experience, from start to finish, totally awesome and unforgettable.
we were picked up at our hotel and brought to the launching spot. we had yummy pastries and juice while we watched the balloons fill up and rise. there was a lot of excitement in the air, barely lit up by the first light of day.
once we set flight, we immediately had fantastic views of the sunrise, the cave dwellings and badlands below, and (my favourite part!) the dozens and dozens of other colorful balloons. about one hundred and twenty balloons took flight that morning, and they were each unique.
as you can tell, i had a hard time narrowing down the pictures i took from our basket. it was just such a cool, cool sight everywhere we looked, constantly changing. our stellar pilot, rodrigo, told us that he has flown balloons in all the premier places around the globe, but cappadocia is his favourite.
we had been in a hot air balloon once before (in napa when we first started dating), and it is such a thrilling yet peaceful experience. once we were up in the cappadocia sky, the world was just quiet and gleaming around us as we slowly glided through the early air.
^^ the castle of uchisar is there in the distance. the villages in the valleys were so, so enchanting. more on the unique cappadocia area is coming in the next post. ^^
^^ the sunrise was so pretty but made for some hard lighting for pictures of the two of us! but we were so happy (despite being so tired)! ^^
^^ rodrigo expertly took our balloon down and through different canyons as well as super high up! we were so impressed by how he maneuvered the balloon and we felt totally safe the entire time. ^^
^^ looking up and down different valleys of rock formations. i know. this is a lot of pictures. ^^
^^ heading in for our landing. ^^
after our balloon landed, rodrigo and some helpers popped celebratory corks and those in the baskets had champagne (juice boxes for us!) and continued to soak in the amazing surroundings as more and more balloons landed. we also had cake because it was one person in our basket’s birthday! it was pretty fun. we also got some cool flight certificates as souvenirs. we were so impressed by the way sultan balloons made the experience so special in different little ways.
^^ just some remains of centuries old cave churches right by where we landed. so neat – and we saw lots more of that stuff the next day! ^^
thank you, sultan balloons, for absolute magic that morning in the cappadocia sky. our experience was absolutely outstanding and will remain glowing in our memories forever! {this post is in sponsorship with sultan balloons, and our opinions remain our own!}
this looks absolutely amazing. I had no idea a place like that exists...its amazing what is on this Earth of ours. Thank you for sharing...I might have to add this to my bucket list ;) awesome!
ReplyDeleteBlown away!
ReplyDeleteThat is AMAZING.
Gorgeous pictures.
amazing!
ReplyDeleteDid you ever fear for your camera? So brave!! :)
ReplyDeleteIncredible pictures! I also had no idea about a place like this and will be adding it to my bucket list too. Beautiful!
ReplyDeleteI also didn't know such a place existed! Wow! Heavenly Father sure knew what we was doing, eh? What a wonderful experience. Hope you got some sleep when it was over :)
ReplyDeleteThis is just absolutely incredible!!! Didn't know about this astonishing place! Thanks so much for taking us there! We may not get there in person!
ReplyDeleteAmazing!!!!!!
ReplyDelete